8-Week Program · Ukrainian Village, Chicago
Eight weekly 50-minute lessons in pop piano — chord voicings, accompaniment patterns, learning songs by ear, and finishing the program with one or two pieces you can actually play and enjoy. For adult beginners and teens. Taught by a working Chicago musician.
8 lessons · 50 min each · weekly cadence · credits valid 1 year from purchase
The Jumpstart is built around one idea: you should be playing music that feels like you from the very first lesson. Not exercises until you’ve “earned” a song. Not simplified arrangements. The real thing, in a form you can actually sit down at a piano and play.
Every student is different, so the exact path bends to fit you — but here’s the shape of the program for a typical Jumpstart student.
Major, minor, and the four chord shapes that build 80% of pop songs. We’ll move them around the keyboard the way actual records use them — not as block stacks but as voicings that sound musical.
Left-hand patterns, right-hand rhythms, how to make a chord feel like it’s moving instead of just sitting there. By the end of week 4 you can sit at the piano and play under a vocal melody.
The skill that lets you learn any pop song without sheet music. We work on hearing the chord changes, finding the melody, and putting together a playable version of a song you choose.
The final two weeks polish one or two songs of your choosing into a real performance. You finish the program with a piece you can actually play start-to-finish — for yourself, for a friend, or as the start of a much bigger repertoire.
Most piano teachers approach pop as a simplified version of “real” piano. Nick approaches it the way the players who actually make these records do — because he’s spent years playing pop, R&B, and contemporary music live around Chicago.
That means voicings that sound like the record. Comping patterns that feel like the groove. Real chord theory taught as it’s actually used — not as an exam you pass before you’re allowed to have fun. Lessons are built around the music you want to play, from the first session.
In-person students work on a real acoustic piano with a Fender Rhodes and Hammond B3 in the room — the actual instruments behind so much of the music you’re trying to learn. More about the studio →
“Nicholas was my daughter’s voice and piano teacher… For her, this meant audition preparation for musical theatre and choir, but also allowing her to celebrate her love of Taylor Swift. He’s very perceptive at quickly getting to know a student as a unique individual.”
Yes. The Jumpstart is designed for complete beginners. The whole premise is that you don’t need years of foundation before you’re allowed to play music you love. Most pop songs are built on a small set of chords — you can be playing simple versions of real songs by week 3.
Your songs. Come in with a list of artists or tracks you’d love to play, and we work the curriculum around them. The techniques we cover are universal across pop — we just apply them to music you actually care about instead of generic exercises.
Both work. In-person at the Ukrainian Village studio means you’re on a real acoustic piano with the Rhodes and B3 in the room. Online means convenience, no commute, and you’re playing on the piano you actually practice on at home — which is its own kind of advantage.
For in-person students, no — you can practice between lessons on whatever you have. For online students, you’ll need at least a 61-key keyboard with weighted or semi-weighted action. We can talk through what to get if you don’t have one yet.
Reschedule with 24 hours notice and your lesson moves to a new time within the year. Pack credits are valid 1 year from purchase, so a week off here or there is built in.
Most Jumpstart students roll into a Semester Pack to keep building — same teacher, same time slot, deeper work. You can also just take what you learned and run with it. No commitment beyond the 8.